Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Ancestry.com Removes "Internet Biographical Database"

I've just come home from work to find messages and blogs stating that Ancestry.com has removed their "Internet Biographical Collection" which cached the work of other genealogists without permission or credit.

Ancestry clearly underestimated the reaction of the genealogy community when they created this blunder. Their announcement says that the database is removed "for the time being."

One lesson I hope Ancestry comes away with is that they need to collaborate with this community--they can't just rub roughshod over the community without paying a price.

I've been talking with some of my academic and practicing colleagues and next week, we'll present a series on the legal issues involved here.

2 comments:

Janice said...

Craig,

I'm looking forward (very much so) to your legal series!!

Janice

DutchessPreserver said...

Ancestry - The Generations Network - WHATEVER they would like to call themselves - certainly does need a Customer Input Panel which they really LISTEN TO.

Perhaps - just perhaps in this way they may prevent themselves from committing suicide.

2 Suicide attempts were performed in August alone - 1st the release of a totally revamped - Family Tree Maker Program - FTM 2008 - already have returned mine - and then the Internet Biographical Collection.

No better way to turn off your customer base than to really "T" that base off.

I second Janice's comment - being a paralegal myself - I am always interested in the legal aspects of any topic.